Ecuador claims Senator

LABOR senator Katy Gallagher is an Ecuadorean citizen, according to a memo written by a senior legal counsel to the country’s former president and attorney-general.

Dr Hernan Perez Loose wrote there was “no doubt” that Ms Gallagher was an Ecuadorean national if information on the public record was correct.

The memo, prepared for The New Daily, concluded that if Ms Gallagher was born in Australia in 1970 and her mother was born in Ecuador in 1943, then she would be a citizen. That’s because citizenship passes to children of people born in Ecuador, and importantly, because Dr Perez said the country’s current constitution was retrospective.

Dr Perez was legal counsel to the president of Ecuador from 1982 to 1984, and the attorney-general in 1980.

It was revealed on Tuesday that Ms Gallagher may be an Ecuadorean citizen. That was based on her mother’s arrival card to Australia, which showed she was born in Ecuador with the country’s constitution stating nationality is through birth or naturalisation and not forfeited by acquiring another nationality.

Ms Gallagher has already renounced her British citizenship.

Constitutional experts George Williams and Mary Crock have both suggested there are questions for the High Court regarding Ms Gallagher. But Labor claims the Ecuadorean constitution is not retrospective – meaning she was never a citizen.

Labor has refused to provide documentation showing several of its parliamentarians had renounced their dual citizenships before being elected.